X-Men: Night of the Living Brain Dead
by
Ben Church bchurch@su.edu
All major characters are the property of Marvel comics
except Hotshot.
Chapter 15
Rachel woke from a nightmare in which she was once again in
prison. The dream was so real that for a moment she was unaware
that it had been a dream. Then, as she realized where she was, she
became aware of music drifting from the hall way. She dressed
herself in a robe and followed the sound to the music room. She'd
had an opportunity to view this room earlier and she was most
impressed at the array of instruments. She found herself now,
being even more impressed at the skill of the boy who now sat at
the piano. She'd never actually met this boy, who would become her
student. Her encounter with him had been brief and he'd still been
in a coma when she had, exhausted by her ordeal in the city, fallen
sleep on the couch. Later that night she'd awakened, and gone to
bed.
The melody that he was playing, was familiar but she
couldn't place it.
"Excuse me," she said softly, the boy turned and saw her.
"You're the woman from-"
"Rachel, Rachel Argosy. Your music teacher." she smiled.
"Though as I can see, there's not much left for you to learn.
"That was a beautiful piece you were just playing, what was
it?"
"It's called 'Somewhere In My Memory', it's from the movie
'Home Alone'."
"Ah, I thought I'd heard it somewhere." She noticed the
downcast look in his eyes. "Is something wrong?" He hesitated,
and she tried a new tactic. "Do you mind if I play something?" she
asked. He nodded and slid over on the bench. She sat down and
began to play another soft melody from her memory.
Will recognized it immediately. "That's from 'Hook'." he
said. She nodded. Suddenly, Will found himself on a cliff, in a
clearing in the forest. He also found that he was no longer
reluctant to confide in Rachel.
"What did you do?"
"It's my mutant power," she answered. "I can use music to
induce a hallucinogenic state in anyone who hears it. Of course
not all of it's affects are false. It also lets the listener feel
at ease with me and can do what they want. With a little prompting
from me of course."
"Sounds like brainwashing to me."
"If you want to stop we will. But I really want to know
what's bothering you. If I'm going to teach you, you have to trust
me. And I also want to be your friend. You did rescue me after
all."
"Did you pick the scene?"
"No, you did. I've never been here before, where are we?"
"This a clearing on a mountain, about three hour's drive
from my home town. This is where I came to think, camp, or just be
alone."
"You really miss Vermont don't you?"
"Yeah, mostly the mountains. Out here, at night when you
look into the sky, you can see every star in the sky. There's no
light to dull them, or smog to obscure them." As he spoke, the
scene around them changed. The sky darkened and soon it was night.
"You see what I mean?" he asked happily. "The sky's so
clear, you can even see the milky way. There are two things in
this world so beautiful, that nothing can compare with them. An
unspoiled sunset, and this." Soon, the sky lightened and they
could see the spectacular view from the mountain top.
"All right," Will amended, "Three things. You see down
there?" he asked, pointing to a tiny building in the valley below.
"That's my Grandparents' tree farm. My parents and I come here
every time we can." his voice broke with sorrow. "Or at least, we
used to."
"You miss them a lot don't you?"
"I used to think that they gave me all the lessons, and the
toys, and everything else, in hopes that I'd forgive them for
letting Rebecca die."
"Rebecca?"
"My sister. I'd forgiven them a long time ago. I don't
know if they knew or not. But maybe, they were just trying to make
up for moving to the city. Or maybe, maybe they were just trying
to make sure they didn't lose the one child they had left. But it
doesn't really matter why they did it. I just wish I hadn't taken
it for granted." Tears escaped from his eyes and ran down his
cheeks. Rachel put a hand on his shoulder and he began to cry.
Rachel pulled him to her and embraced him. He sobbed into her
shoulder for what seemed to him to be a long time. When he had
calmed down she released him.
"Thanks." he said. "I needed that."
"I kind of figured that you did. Is there anything else
you need to get off your chest, or are you okay?"
"There's just one other thing, when I killed the people who
killed my parents, I destroyed everything I believed in. When I
found out I was a mutant, I swore to myself that I wouldn't be the
menace everyone perceived every mutant to be. But when I killed
those people, it was like I was proving them right. And I know I
should feel bad about it, but I don't."
"You didn't prove them right, because they had attacked you
first, and had killed innocent humans. Maybe you do feel bad about
what you did but just don't know it. But when you killed them, you
weren't killing innocents, you were killing killers." At that, she
stopped playing. They were back in the music room.
"Now," she said, "I think you should get to bed. You've
got a big day tomorrow."
Will smiled. "Goodnight Argosy, and thanks." He started
to leave.
"Will." she called.
"What?"
"Please, call me Miss Argosy."
"You got it, Miss Argosy."
Selene burst into the control room in a rage.
"I've lost him!" she snarled. "Just as I was about to
silence him, I lost him!"
"Selene," said Arcade, "Calm down. You're foaming at the
mouth.
"Oh by the way I finished brainwashing the X-men. I swear,
watching the information in their heads, is better than pay per
view. Speaking of which, they've canceled our HBO. I thought it
was your turn to pay the bill."
"Oh shut up Arcade." Selene said quietly. "I can see that
this is going to require the direct approach."
"Putting him into a coma is subtle?"
"I said shut up. Show me the quickest route from the
Massachusetts academy to here."
Arcade tapped a few keys and a map appeared on the screen.
Selene studied it for a moment and smiled.
The camper sped down the mountain road, carefully avoiding
speed traps. Will sat behind the wheel and began looking for a
good radio station. He settled on one that played modern music and
checked the radar detector.
Monet, sitting in the passenger seat, recognized one of the
guitar solos, Will had been playing days before.
"What band is this?" she asked.
"Offspring, Genocide, why?"
"I heard you playing it on guitar earlier. You know it's
ironic, a mutant listening to a song called Genocide."
Will smiled. "Yeah, I guess it is, anyway I just like the
guitar solo."
"Where are the others?" Monet asked after a moment.
"Well, Logan's on his Harley a couple of miles ahead,
Cassidy, Frost and Bishop are in the pickup behind us and Munroe
and Creed are in a car somewhere behind us.
"Is it wise to have us so close together?"
"No, but we haven't encountered any traffic to separate us.
As far as anyone knows, Logan's a biker, We're a bunch of teenagers
on a road trip, Cassidy and Miss frost are a married couple, and so
are Munroe and Creed. Bishop's just a hitchhiker."
"Hey amigo." said a voice from behind him.
"What's up Espinoza?" Will asked.
"Can we stop for lunch soon? We're getting hungry."
"Sure thing." he picked up the CB radio. "Hey Cassidy, you
read me?"
"Aye lad." came Sean's voice from the radio. "Loud and
clear, what's up?"
"Me and the gang are getting a little antsy, we're gonna
make a pit stop. We'll meet you at the hotel. Okay?"
"Not a problem lad, I'll have Emma alert the others.
Over."
"Roger, over and out." Will smiled. "God I love that radio
talk."
They soon reached a roadside diner and gas station. Will
pulled into a parking space and shut off the engine.
"Okay," he said getting out of the camper. "Monet, could
you get us a table? I'm gonna get some gas."
"After eating the food here? I'm not surprised." Monet
replied.
"Hey you made a joke, I'm proud of yer." Jonathan said.
"I wasn't joking." she replied. "The food at truckstops is
notorious."
"How many roadside diners have you eaten at?" Everett
asked.
"Well, none actually."
"Well don't knock it till you've tried it chica." Angelo
said as they entered the diner.
They sat at a booth and took the menus that were there.
When the waitress came to take their order, she gave Clarice a
surprised look but otherwise seemed indifferent. She took their
orders and then Monet sent Clarice out to see what Will wanted.
"We should get some apples for Penance." Paige said.
Will saw the biker gang pulling up, but he didn't think
much of it. He didn't see the words that were sewn on the back of
their jackets: DIE MUTIE DIE. He also did not see Clarice till it
was too late. In a moment, he became aware of both when he heard
Clarice scream. He looked up from the gas tank where he was
replacing the lid. Clarice was draped, unconscious on the seat of
one of the motorcycles which were now racing away.
The rest of Generation X ran from the restaurant with
Espinoza at the front. He stretched out the skin on his fingers
and snagged two of the cyclists in the rear. He yanked them off
their bikes and raced up and saw that they were already
unconscious. Will ran up next to him and said "Skin, can you ride
one these things?"
"No problem amigo." Skin said noting that they were in
mission mode already.
"Good. Unless anyone has any better ideas, then me and
Skin will go after them on the bikes, with M and Synch giving us
air support. Chamber, you get our orders to go and follow us in
the camper. Any questions?"
"Yeah mate," Chamber said, "What do you want to eat?"
"Double cheeseburger, and a large Pepsi. Lets go."
The roar of motorcycles echoed from the surrounding
mountains. The Friends of Humanity Biker Chapter, rode towards the
cabin they had stayed at the night before, laughing at their good
fortune.
"We gonna have ourselves a good time tonight boys!" the
leader shouted over the radio, leering at the young, attractive
mutant lying prone in his lap. "First we gonna rape this freak o'
nature, then we gonna have ourselves a regular mutie roast!" He
began to laugh again, when a voice came in on his radio
"If the UFO hotline limits you to one call per day, you
might be a redneck." the voice mocked. He looked behind him and
saw a frightening sight. Two teenagers on motorcycles were chasing
them, and two more were flying.
The leader's fright gave way to hatred and he shouted to
his followers "Looks like the mutie's got some friends back there
boys! Go nuts!" Having received permission to attack the mutants
behind them, the rest of the gang turned and headed for their
pursuers.
Hotshot saw one of the bikers pull out a gun and point it
at him. He suffered a moment of panic as the man fired. But the
bullet spanged off his eye patch. Hotshot headed for the first of
the attacking bikers. He swerved just as he was about to ram him,
and clotheslined him. The biker flew from the bike and was run
over by the biker behind him. Both bikes crashed and Skin deftly
evaded the wreckage.
Hotshot called out to the others. "You guys think you can
handle this trash?"
"Of course." M answered. "But what are you going to do?"
"The leaders getting away, I'm going after him." Without
waiting for a response, he turned his bike towards the side of the
road, and headed up the wooded hill.
"Well I guess that ends that conversation." Synch said.
"Do you think he can handle the guy all by himself?"
"I hope so." M replied. "Blink's life hangs in the
balance."
Skin was amazed at Hotshot's skill on a bike. He'd
obviously grown up in the 'hood, but he must have gotten a lot of
experience in mountain biking.
There were ten bikers in total, with two and the leader
gone, there were only seven left to challenge the young mutants.
Skin took out two more. He wrapped the skin of his fingers around
the helmet of one, and turned it backwards so he couldn't see.
Then he pulled the handlebars and caused the biker to swerve into
another. M kicked the front tire of another one, bursting it. The
bike stopped suddenly and the rider flew off. Synch flew into the
side of the closest biker knocking him into the street. The four
remaining bikers turned away from the mutants and fled.
"Well, that was a good work out." Synch said. Just then,
the camper pulled up next to them and Chamber got out.
"Anybody hungry?" he asked.
"Where's Blink and Hotshot?" Husk asked from the camper.
It had been awhile since Hotshot had last been mountain
biking, and he'd never done it on a motorcycle, a dirt bike yes,
but a motorcycle was a lot bigger than a dirt bike.
"It's a good thing I can't be harmed by blunt objects." he
thought. "If I fall off, I won't get hurt."
He was riding some way's up the mountain, along side the
road. When he thought he was far enough ahead of the leader, he
dug out a length of chain from the bag on the side of the bike. He
found a place where the cliff curved away from the road. He tied
one end to a tree next to the cliff and welded it. He tested the
chain, and then he took the other end of the chain and went as far
from the edge as the chain would let him. He'd no sooner gotten
there then he heard the leader's cycle approach the cliff.
He counted to ten and put the bike on full throttle to the
left of where he'd stuck the chain. The bike flew off the edge of
the cliff with Hotshot on it. He rode till he reached the limit of
the chain then let the bike fall. He wrapped the chain around his
legs and welded it as he fell. He plummeted to the ground
but the chain stopped him five feet in the air. The jolt of the
chain catching him was incredible but his mutant invulnerability
saved him.
He swung on the chain, his momentum carrying him to the
motorcycle. When he reached it, he hit the leader with one arm and
grabbed Blink with the other. The leader fell backward off his
bike while Hotshot swung with Blink away from the bike. He reached
with his free arm and grasped the chain, and pulled himself into a
standing position. Then he twisted around to shield Blink from the
impact with the mountain. They struck the side with enough force to
crush a normal person's bones, but once again, he was unharmed.
Soon after, the camper came into view, and M freed
him from the chain, and took him and Blink back to the camper
where, after eating his lunch, Will went to sleep exhausted.
To be continued...
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